The Queen of Dreams
by Doctor Foster
Summary: Holly the Sleep-walker visits Larry and they both meet The Toy. Cliff makes a special appearance and Alice travels back through time to meet Dr Niles Caulder


6

The Queen of Dreams

Larry arrived home late. Now that the Negative Man had mysteriously 'gone' he had decided to make up for the many years of lonely existence by getting out as much as was possible and actually enjoying himself. Even so, he still had to come home eventually and after a night of wandering from bar to bar he was tired and not just a little bit 'tipsy'.

He slipped off his jacket and tossed it casually at his armchair and then got himself a bottle from a kitchen cupboard and a small glass from off the draining-board. He then poured himself a small single-malt whiskey and settled down in his armchair to savour this last drink of the night before retiring to bed. Out of habit, he switched on the television and flicked through the channels until he found an old black-and-white movie. He recognised it immediately, Hitchcock's _Rebecca. _Larry smiled with pleasure and loosened his tie as he slumped lower into his seat to watch the film. He took another sip of his drink.

Even as Mrs Danvers continued to pour her withering scorn on the new Mrs de Winter, Larry's attention was suddenly drawn away from the TV set and towards the corner of his room. A young woman was standing there facing towards him.

The girl was aged about eighteen and had long uncombed black hair. She was wearing loose fitting blue-and-white-striped men's pyjamas that were clearly too big for her. Larry also noted that her head seemed to loll loosely with every breath that she took for she was clearly fast asleep.

Larry tried to sit-up in his seat, but no matter how hard he tried to move he was unable to lift any of his limbs for even a fraction without the greatest exertion of effort. As he remained immobile, the girl slowly moved towards Larry and proceeded to climb onto his lap and curl up there with her head resting on his shoulder.

"Do I know you?" Larry whispered.

"I don't think so," the girl answered quietly.

"Are you a friend of Enid's?"

"Perhaps."

"Could you move, please? You're digging into my chest."

"I'm removing your heart," she replied.

"Please, move! You're really hurting now!"

"It won't take much more time."

As the pain in Larry's chest became unbearable, he cried out and with supreme effort he was finally able to stand up and shake the girl off of him. He stood up panting with the effort. The girl was now standing to one side facing away from him. She held something in her hand, something dripping and bloody.

"What have you done?" he asked.

The girl turned and held out her hand to show him his heart. "Rita needs this for Cliff."

"Cliff can't have it," Larry answered.

"But Rita wants it."

"Oh … okay … that's okay."

"Good."

Larry looked at the hollowed out place in his chest where his heart had once been. "What am I to do now?"

"You can come with me, if you want? I'm to take this to Cliff"

"I've missed Cliff. It would be good to see him again."

The girl then took hold of Larry's hand and led him towards the window. She then opened the window and still holding onto Larry's hand stepped outside. Larry's apartment was on the fourth floor of the building so not surprisingly he hesitated before joining her outside the window. The girl though, seemed able to walk on air.

"Come on," she urged. "You'll be alright as long as I hold on to you."

Larry kept a firm hold on to the girl's hand as he edged his way out through the window. Tentatively, he stepped out and was indeed able to walk 'alongside' her on an invisible walkway through the air.

"It's just over there," she said indicating Rita's more luxurious apartment block which now seemed to be incredibly close even though he knew it was actually located on the other side of town. As they approached Rita's apartment they did not even have to open the window for there was an open balcony that Larry hadn't previously noticed that allowed them to walk straight into Rita's living room.

"There's no-one here," Larry opined.

"She'll be at the beach," the girl replied.

The girl then led Larry towards the bathroom, opened the door, and they then stepped through onto a sandy beach.

Larry disclosed his appreciation: "Clever!"

The girl let go of Larry's hand and he immediately became aware that he was covered in bandages again and as he stumbled forward on the uneven sand he learned that the bandages were loose and threatening to completely unravel. He tried to pull the wrappings tighter and as he was struggling to cope he could see that the pyjama-clad girl was now talking to another dark-haired girl – this one being dressed entirely in a tight-fitting yellow leotard. He continued to struggle with his bandages and when he looked up again he could see that Pyjama Girl had given Leotard Girl Larry's heart and the girl in yellow was placing it into the sand. Alarmed by this development, Larry ignored the unravelling bandages and stumbled towards the girl. She was closing a small square door in the sand as Larry got to her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I'm fixing Cliff. Look!" She then stood up to reveal that she had closed the square door and that it was part of Robotman's chest. The girl then held her hand over the closed door and there was a clear exchange of energy from the girl to the inert metallic body. The energy seemed to power-up the robot for he jerked upwards and Larry watched in amazement as his one-time Doom Patrol companion rose up out of the sand.

Larry asked: "Cliff, is it you?" He could see that there were indications of 'life' within Cliff's eyes.

"Larry?" Cliff's voice sounded more mechanical than Larry had remembered. There were the distinct noises of rusting cogs turning with extreme difficulty as Cliff spoke.

"Is he alright?" Larry asked the girl in yellow.

"He's alright now, yes."

"This place looks very familiar," Larry added. "This beach, that island … why do I think I have been here before?"

"Larry," Cliff answered with difficulty. "This is where we all died."

Larry puzzled over Cliff's words for a moment but then it did all begin to fall into place. Yes, this was the place where they had all been caught by Zahl and Rouge. This was the very place where they had died all those years ago!

A nagging thought still troubled Larry. "But Cliff, you were revived before either Rita or me! What are you doing here now?"

"No, I am the last to be permanently revived. Both you and Rita were brought back to life before me."

"That's not right," Larry stumbled forward to stand close to his old friend. "You were first!"

"Cliff is correct," the yellow clad girl insisted. "You and Rita were revived many years ago. It's Cliff's turn now. He is the last of you Doom Patrollers to be revived."

Larry turned on the girl. He was irritated. "Who are you? Why are you saying that?"

"I am the Toy," she replied calmly and with a hint of humour to her voice. "And I know it to be true for it is true! Ask Holly if you don't believe me."

Larry looked around for he had forgotten about the girl in pyjamas. Holly though was lying down on the sand, curled up and fast asleep.

"She's asleep," Larry snapped back at the Toy.

"Holly's always asleep. Ask her, she will answer you."

Larry stepped towards the dozing Holly with great difficulty as every movement that he made resulted in his bandages becoming looser-and-looser. He could now see that within his bandages his body and limbs were invisible much like Claude Raines in that old film of _The Invisible Man_.

"Holly? Wake up!" He gave her shoulder a shake to try and wake her and as he did so all the bandages fell-off his right arm but now that the bandages had fallen off it did not seem that he had a right arm for them to cover!

"What's happening to me?" Larry demanded.

Holly stirred and sat up. "Larry, you are nothing without the Negative Man."

"That's not right! I am something! I'm Larry Trainor!"

"Larry Trainor does not exist. Only the Negative Man has any existence. And without him you're nothing."

Larry screamed his denial of Holly's assertion but his agitation only caused more of his bandages to loosen and unravel. Then, without warning, Cliff moved towards Larry and with a swing of his arm he cut Larry in two and what remained of him fell in a heap onto the sand.

"Well, that's the end of Larry Trainor," Holly commented.

Alice Wired-for-Sound sat cross-legged, floating in the air in the middle of Larry's living room. She was facing the armchair on which he slept. "Larry, wake-up," she said. But when, after a moment had passed and he still refused to do as she had bidden, Alice reached out with one of her tendrils and lightly touched Larry's head before recoiling suddenly. "Oh," she said. "Where have you gone?"

But even as she spoke, Alice dreamily became aware that someone else had appeared in the room. "Hello, Holly. What have you done to Larry?"

Holly, the Sleepwalker, stood near the door to Larry's apartment. She was asleep. She yawned and stretched her arms before resuming her previous position. "He's gone," she said.

"Yes, but where has he gone to?"

"He disappeared from his dream. I came here to see if … perhaps … but he wasn't!"

"You don't know where he's gone?"

"No."

"Did you do it?"

"No! Not me," Holly replied. "It was the Toy. It's all her fault!"

"But with your help?" Alice asked.

If it were possible for someone who was asleep to look 'sheepish' then that was Holly. "She asked me to bring him to the beach!" she complained. "She said it was necessary for Cliff and Rita had asked Larry to come and he wouldn't!"

"So the Toy tricked you?"

"That's it, exactly! She tricked me!"

"Well, we'll have to find him, won't we?"

"I suppose so," Holly replied maintaining the sheepish manner.

Alice reached out with a tendril and touched Holly's shoulder. They both then disappeared from sight.

They travelled for an indeterminate time through a place filled with a thick fog until a door appeared in front of them. It was a plain wooden door painted in a standard 'institution' shade of pale green. It was also marked with the number '14' in silver numerals. Holly reached the door first and pushed it open. They both then entered a hospital recovery-room. The single bed was occupied by a man swathed entirely in bandages. He was sedated and connected to an old kind of monitoring machine.

"Larry?" Alice asked. "Is that you?"

The question was answered by Holly: "I guess so. Look at the machinery. It's not modern. I think we have travelled back to when he first became Negative Man."

A nurse then entered the room via the door behind them and they could both see that she was dressed as nurses were in the early 1960s.

"She doesn't see us," Alice said.

A bearded man then entered the room. He was in a wheelchair.

"Niles!" Alice exclaimed. "I've been searching for you everywhere!" She made to embrace him as Holly observed: "He can't see or hear us either." Alice's outstretched arms passed through Niles as if he were a ghost. "That isn't fair!" Alice complained. "Why can't I touch him? I need to touch him!"

Niles Caulder then approached the bed and studied Larry's medical chart while the nurse busied herself in taking Larry's temperature. The nurse took the records off Caulder for a moment, added the latest figures to the paperwork before returning them to Doctor Caulder.

"That'll be all, thank you," Caulder said to the nurse.

The nurse smiled at Caulder and left the room.

Alice and Holly watched all of this in silence as they each tried to formulate their thoughts. "This must be some sort of temporal effect. I have never experienced it before." Holly took a momentary time-out while she considered the implications of what they were experiencing. She put her thoughts into an order which she then spoke out loud: "We were following Larry. He disappeared entirely from where we were … I wonder whether, somehow, he has come back here … wherever 'here' is? It looks like the early 60s, doesn't it? I've seen _The Man from UNCLE _on TV, this looks like then, doesn't it? What do you think?"

"We've travelled through time following Larry?"

"Perhaps … Maybe … I think so, yes."

"Look out here, Alice," Holly had moved to the window and the view was of a metropolitan city-scape with the road below them, busy with traffic. She indicated for Alice to come to the window and look downwards. "All those cars look old to me," she said.

Alice was not entirely sure: "I suppose they are."

"That's it then! Some how, we have travelled back through time," Holly said.

Alice then moved away from the window and towards Larry's bed. "I'm going to speak to him," she announced. She then lifted one of her tendrils and allowed it to lightly brush Larry's cheek. "I can feel his pain," she said to Holly. "I can feel he is there, in this body, but he is in a lot of pain even though he is sedated."

"But who is it, exactly?" Holly asked. "Is it our Larry from our time or the original Larry from this time? Can you tell the difference?"

"They are both here," Alice replied.

"You are sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure … and there's something else as well!"

Alice was about to speak further when the Negative Man surged out of Larry's body. Both girls recoiled from Larry in surprise. But this new apparition was even seen by Niles Caulder and he too recoiled from Larry's bedside.

"Larry?" Caulder said to the black negative-image human that was standing by the side of the bed. Inexplicably, he chose to ignore all the machinery in the room that was now sparking electricity and exploding.

"Caulder can see it too!" Holly shouted out.

The Negative Man replied: "I am Larry and I am Not-Larry."

Niles Caulder queried that announcement: "Not-Larry?"

"I am not him, and I am him. I am within and without. I am up and I am down. I am positive and I am negative."

"Alright, Mister Negative …" Caulder said.

At that moment, alerted by the noise of exploding machinery, a number of hospital staff ran into the room. A male doctor quickly summed-up the situation and directed a hospital-porter: "Quick! Get Doctor Caulder out before he's hurt!"

"Get off, you fool!" Caulder replied, gruffly waving the porter away.

It was only then that the porter and the other hospital staff noticed the Negative Man standing at the foot of the bed. They stumbled and fell in their haste to escape from the eerily glowing figure.

Alice reached out to all the hospital staff with her tendrils. This was noticed by Holly: "What are you doing?" she said. "We are like ghosts to them!"

But Alice's tendrils were able to make contact with everyone who had entered the room. "Be calm!" she announced. "Do not be afraid. Do not panic. You are not needed here." All at once the hospital staff calmed down and quietly left the room. "My power reaches all," she told Holly who gaped in amazement.

The Negative Man then stumbled forwards as if it were about to collapse. However, it managed to regain enough strength to steady itself. "I must return to Larry, now." It then flowed back into Larry's comatose body.

Niles Caulder quickly returned to his instruments and studied them all in turn, making notes in pencil on a notepad before checking on Larry's inert body once again.

Alice and Holly watched Caulder for a while until Alice decided: "I am going to try and separate the two Larrys." She then stroked the inert body of Larry with her tendrils and then announced: "I have him!" Alice's tendrils then stiffened in the effort of pulling the essence of the Larry from the future out of the body of Larry from the past. As she strained, Alice said; "Get ready to depart for our own time as soon as I say I'm ready."

Holly acknowledged Alice but with a healthy degree of sceptism to her voice: "Alright," and watched as an eerie phantom shape was pulled out of Larry's body. "Now!" Alice yelled. "Take us back, Holly! I have him!"

Holly, Alice and the phantom Larry disappeared from the room as Niles Caulder, oblivious to it all, re-checked the calibrations of his machinery. He was puzzled to find that everything was as it should be. He checked the readings again and silently shook his head.

Alice, Holly and the phantom Larry reappeared in Larry's apartment where the spectral Larry-shape immediately flowed back into its host body.

"It's done," Alice announced.

"Yes, well-done!" Holly commented.

"Luckily for you." Alice added.

"What do you mean?"

"If Larry had been lost then … "

"Then what?"

"Then I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, that's all."

"I told you! It was the Toy! She was responsible, not me!"

Larry began to stir. He opened his eyes and turned from one girl to the other. "What's going on?" he asked.

Alice indicated the Sleepwalker: "Holly called to see us."

"And you fell asleep," Holly explained indicating Larry.

"She has that effect," Alice added. "She is a dream, a walking dream, the Queen of Dreams."

"Really?" Larry said. "Is this one of those parties that I've read about in the Sunday papers?" He indicated Holly's apparel. Holly was now wearing a very short black nightdress and fluffy bunny-headed slippers. She immediately fell asleep where she was standing, snoring quietly.

"Interesting friend you have there," Larry said to Alice. "Is she narcoleptic?"

"No … Sagittarius, I think," Alice replied.

[END]


End file.
